Past events

by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Joint seminar with the Anglo-Turkish Society

Tuesday 21 November 2017 at 6.00pm

at the Royal Anthropological Institute

Speaker: Dr Bettany Hughes

Istanbul: The World’s Desire

Award-winning historian, broadcaster and author Bettany Hughes presents an epic new biography of Istanbul, the city with three names -Byzantium, Constantinople, stanbul, the gateway between the East and the West, and between the North and the South which served as the capital of the Late Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. Investigating what it takes to make a city, Bettany explores this city ‘the world’s desire’ that is racing up the modern political agenda. Based on meticulous research gathered over a decade and brand new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate and scholarly narrative history at its finest. Using the very latest techniques and finds –including Neolithic footprints preserved in the deep mud of the Bosphorus –Bettany walks the streets of the city and brings back to life the story of its inhabitants across 8000 years.